I traveled to Miami the night before and treated myself to the JW Marriott Marquis. If you are traveling out of state, I highly recommend flying in the night before! It takes away most of the stress the morning of embarkation. I got to Port of Miami by 11am and I was literally on the ship by 11:45am. It was that fast! Everyone who was on the ship at that point headed right to the buffet, so I was able to walk the ship in peace and got some great shots. I also met my steward and got access to my cabin at about 12:30pm. Knowing that I was on my own, my steward went out of his to make sure I had everything I needed, and kept my cabin spotless!

Overall I found the ship to be very clean (I always saw staff cleaning the desk, picking up, vacuuming, etc.) and I found all staff to be quite helpful and friendly. My only complaints which I noticed another guest mentioned was the air conditioning: it was spotty at best in my cabin. However, I do know that on our sea day (last day) there were parts of the ship on decks 7 & 8 that had no air at all (thankfully my cabin wasn't that bad). I also know that the ship left Miami late the next day due to generator issues (not sure if the 2 are related). The second issue was the buffet lines: the only way to get around that was to just not eat during peak hours. Doable, but perhaps in the future this is something Carnival can plan for better. The food itself in my opinion has just gone downhill in the past 10 years. What happened to midnight buffet where you take pictures of all the beautiful food?

While I enjoy Key West, I found the timing of the port to be a waste of time. I would have rather had a sea day and enjoyed a full day in Cozumel but that is just me. Of all my cruises, I was least happy with these ports (more a case of timing than the ports themselves & for that lesson learned!). Read more